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Not managing your time and making excuses are two bad habits. Don't put them both together by claiming you 'don't have the time'. - Bo Bennett

Hello world! For those of you who are new, welcome to the Luminstruct blog! I am currently working on a "365 Word Project" where everyday I will be posting a reflection on a word and today's word is "balance".

So here's a fun fact about me, I can juggle! I learned from an old friend of mine back in middle school and ever since then, I have been able to juggle pretty much anything. I have yet to master the skill of juggling four items at once, but I do know the motions I need to do in order to accomplish this feat.

Just like juggling, we struggle balancing everything in our lives. When placing too much attention toward one aspect of our lives, we may drop other important aspects in the process. Working at a college, you quickly see a theme when talking to students about time management. They all know the strategies they need to take in order to accomplish the feat of balancing their time, but rarely use their time effectively because they 'don't have the time' in the first place.

One of my biggest role models at Western Carolina led an activity with students to help them understand how much time they were actually working with. Although I have seen many different activities, I felt this was the most effective way to show students how they balance their lives.

Here is the activity:Take some time to map out your average week and assign the approximate number of hours you do this activity each day. For example, I try to get 8 hours of sleep each day. Once you have calculated these hours and included unique activities which occur only during certain days of the week, calculate the number of hours you have scheduled during the week and compare it to the real number of hours you have during the week.

So as a quick run through of my week, I would say I have...8 hours of sleep a day = 56 hours3 hours of eating a day= 21 hours4 hours of TV watching a week= 4 hours12 hours of class (from Spring semester)= 12 hours3 hours of studying a day= 21 hours2 hours of free time (clubs/orgs) a day= 14 hours20 hours a week for my job= 20 hours2 hours a day to get ready/change/shower etc (generous)= 14 hoursTOTAL= 162 hours a week scheduled out of 168 hours (7*24)6 hours unaccounted for.

Even with some very generous numbers such as time to get ready in the morning, tv watching, and free time, I still have 6 hours to work with. Many times the results will give the student much more free time to work with since many students are not working 20 hours a week and also have a full load of classes. Talk to students about how they manage their time and how they can use this information to balance their life better in the future. I know personally a planner, calendar and many sticky notes help me through the day, just make sure you don't drop the ball ;)

About the video: Although I'm sure you were very excited to see a time management video, I decided to make the video a bit more fun. Here is a tribute to one of the best time managers out there. With over 800 episodes, 'Doctor Who' is the longest running Science Fiction series to date on TV. This is definitely one of the top shows I spend my 4 hours of TV watching on. I would highly recommend giving the show a chance. Here's to the Doctor for 50 wonderful years!

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